Southern Mapping Company awarded contract by De Beers to conduct LiDAR aerial survey

South Africa, 13 Apr 07: Southern Mapping Company has been granted a contract by mining giant De Beers to conduct LiDAR aerial surveys of its own Namaqualand diamond mine and its newly formed joint venture with government, Alexkor diamond mine. Southern Mapping Company will conduct lidar aerial surveys of the Kleinzee and Koingnaas areas that form part of the Namaqualand mining community.

“Through the three-dimensional imaging of the earth as you see it, De Beers will benefit by the invaluable information when planning our mining operations,” says Hugh Jones, the chief surveyor at De Beers Namaqualand Mines. He continues,”The LiDAR aerial surveys will assist us in accurately quantifying the rehabilitation liability and will provide De Beers with an accurate DTM of the disturbed area, enabling mass haul diagrams or quantities to be computed and costed.”

For doing the current aerial LiDAR survey Southern Mapping Company has it’s newly leased aircraft fitted with the latest in aerial surveying equipment ALTM 3100 EA, which is an airborne laser terrain mapper worth more than $1-milion, providing high-resolution, high-accuracy digital elevation data from a laser.

The Ortho-images and digital raster pictures obtained through the LiDAR aerial survey will also facilitate De Beers in developing a rehabilitation and closure master plan for Namaqualand Mines.

Being involved in LiDAR aerial mapping and surveying since 1995, the team at Southern Mapping Company has worked on many aerial surveying projects. They have provided topographical maps to mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Gabon and Botswana, as well as to various governments and engineering firms for a variety of infrastructure projects.